Marvel are at South By Southwest right now, announcing some new digital projects. The first is ‘Marvel Infinite’ comics, Marvel’s own digital service for comic books. It appears that Marvel will be making 700 of their #1 issues available for free, so new readers can try the first issue before seeing if they want to continue on and buy the rest. Also announced is a new weekly digital Wolverine series called ‘Japan’s Most Wanted’, which will be headed up by Jason Aaron but overseen by a number of different writers. And finally, they’ve revealed that ‘Project Gamma’ will be an adaptive audio addition to their digital comics, putting sound to their digital stories.

So! Let’s break that down as best as possible. The first news involves Marvel Infinite, which was previously revealed to be the new name for Marvel’s digital comics program. As part of their rebrand, which Todd spoke about a few days ago, Marvel are going to make a series of issues available for free to readers. These will be the first issues of every respective series – Guardians of the Galaxy, for example – offering readers a chance to try the books before they decide to pick up the following issues and start following the books proper.

However! This will be a limited offer from Marvel, and it looks like the books will go back to regular pricing – ranging from $1.99 to $3.99 – so you have until Tuesday.

Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted is a digital series, which will be released weekly. The first issue will be out in July, with Jason Aaron overseeing the storyline. Jason Latour will also be writing, with Paco Diaz on art. CBR have an interview with the creative team, and Marvel have offered a solicitation for the series:

Marvel Comics’ latest innovative Infinite Comic is here! Wolverine stars in a weekly adventure from the mind of super star writer Jason Aaron (WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN, THOR) that pits Wolverine against classic villains and a threat unlike any he has ever faced!

The Wolverine series will last 13 weeks, and then be followed by three other stories, which will all also last for 13 weeks each.

And finally, Project Gamma. This will be another addition to Marvel’s digital comics, where readers can add audio to their comics as they read them. The sound will be fully adaptive, with no loops. It’ll move with you, in essence, following you as you follow the story. There’ll be music played which changes depending on location and character. There’s no official date for this yet, but Marvel plan to roll this out later in the year. Rolling Stone seem to know a lot about this, actually. You can also find a video from Marvel here.

Kieron Gillen is already furiously writing an email to Kenickie’s manager as we speak, asking for clearance rights.

Free? Has anyone else been having problems downloading any free comics, putting them in the cart and you can’t access them? If you try again you get error messages. No wonder piracy is popular — unlike Marvel Com it works.

I think we overwhelmed the server(s). It’s bad news in the short term, and probably embarassing to Marvel and their ‘technology partner’, but since digital cloud comics never sell out, there will be lots more for us to borrow once they get back online.
This could be a hint at our approval of lower prices for old comics on cloud.